The labor market might look solid on paper, but there's another story brewing beneath the surface. According to Pantheon Macroeconomics' top analyst, small businesses are getting hammered by persistent uncertainty—caught between policy shifts, inflation aftershocks, and volatile consumer demand. While headline employment numbers stay resilient, Main Street feels a different reality. This disconnect matters because small business sentiment often signals economic turning points before they show up in official data. Worth watching how this tension resolves.